LEGO envisions a future of toys that defy the distinction between physical and digital

The LEGO BOOST collection is designed to give children basic building and coding skills.

LEGO

Last year LEGO saw its first slump in growth in a decade.

The LEGO Play Well Report 2018 shows that kids are increasingly blurring the distinction between digital and physical in play.

CMO says LEGO wants to develop toys of that prepare children for the future.

The Danish toy manufacturer LEGO has seen immense growth for over a decade, until last year. 2017 was the first time profits fell since the company's former CEO, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, came on board in 2004 and began the transformation of LEGO into the success story it is today as a multimedia innovator. Now the company is trying to pick up the pace again by staying ahead of the times.

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To stay with the times and keep up the growth trajectory LEGO has embraced the social disruption of digitalization and hopes to have an even bigger role in children's development going forward.

The ‘LEGO Play Well Report 2018' found that 80% of surveyed parents now believe that digital play can be both creative and rewarding. The report also found that children increasingly blur the distinction between physical and digital in play.

“In fact, inspired by the blurred lines between the digital and physical worlds, today’s children are seamlessly merging what’s real and what’s virtual, reinventing play in ways people of my own generation could never have envisioned,” Niels B. Christiansen, LEGO Group CEO, writes in the report.

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To develop both short term and long term strategies for digital play LEGO created the Creative Play Lab a few years ago.

“It’s an opportunity to innovate for 5, 10, 20 years from now,” Julia Goldin, LEGO Group CMO, tell Business Insider Nordic in a interview.

“Where is the world going? There’s no definite answer, so we have both short term and long term projects in the pipeline.”

For LEGO it’s about thinking outside the box – especially when it comes to digitalization, which Goldin believes is a never-ending journey that has just begun. She also believes that the perceived dichotomy between digital and physical will be completely dissolved in the future.

“For kids the world is fluid, it is a seamless blend of the physical and the digital. We at LEGO are embracing that fluidity in play, and we want to have a bigger role in a child’s development,” Goldin explains.

She recognizes that it is somewhat difficult to keep up with the kids but that it is important to do so. One reason is that playtime – both digital and physical – is part of the development of the child, but also important for creating happier families.

Another reason to keep up is that children are growing up to a new and unknown future due to the digitalization of society – and play is a way of preparing them.

"About 50% of jobs today will be replaced by other jobs requiring different skills in the future – the kids need to be prepared."

LEGO’s bet is not just on digital play, but to integrate digital features with existing physical products and vice versa. The strategy is already yielding results.